Sunday, September 25, 2011

2011-12 NHL Projections: Defense

Depending on which stats your league values or tracks, you may opt for defenders on more successful teams.

The better the team, the better the plus/minus, and the better the power play. If your defense has a few power play quarter backs on good teams, you’re bound to reap the rewards of increased goal totals, and increased power play point totals.

If your league values PIMs, make sure you take tougher defencemen that will rack up points as well, such as Dustin Byfuglien, Shea Weber, Chris Pronger Brent Burns or Kevin Bieksa.

On the whole, there are some older, reliable defenders like Lidstromn, Gonchar and Tomas Kaberle, but you’d likely be better off selecting young up and coming defencemen like Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, P.K. Subban, Jack Johnson and Tyler Myers.

There are a lot of excellent young defenders, so you should have plenty to choose from come draft day.

Young defenders like Zach Bogosian, Jonathan Blum and Nick Leddy may be the three biggest surprises this year, so look to nab them late.

Puckwatch has researched all 30 NHL teams looking for top picks, and hidden gems. While some teams with deeper blue lines do not have everyone represented, found below are the top 2-3 defenders per team, culminating in a list of the top 70 scoring defenders this season.